“If
you begin with ‘who’, rather than ‘what’, you can more easily adapt to a
changing world”

“If
you have the right people on the bus, the problem of how to motivate and
manage people largely goes away”

“If
you have the wrong people, it doesn’t matter whether you discover the
right direction; you still won’t have a great company.”

What would your business
look like if your hiring system delivered the right person 75% of the
time?Here are some tips to stack the
odds in your favor.

Create thorough job descriptions

Most business leaders use
job descriptions to insure the candidate understands the positional duties and
responsibilities; but here’s where many fall short. A good job description
should also include a list of the skills and competencies required to perform
the tasks and duties expected and critical objectives. Many job descriptions
simply state duties but you need pry deeper and outline what is a priority so all
team members.This will help keep you
team focused on what you want, facilitate
quick hiring when the need arises, and communicate your expectations to
candidates and current employees.

Market for employees, just like customers

Recruiting, like
marketing, is most effective when it is targeted, planned and executed with
consistency.Start with the basic
question, “What makes your company a
great choice for potential employees?” Having a written Culture Statement
that is alive and well will help you to answer this question. Cross checking
your Culture Statement with your employees’ experience should be a regular
practice. Now is a good time to ask your current team – they’ll tell you.

Next, identify the best
ways to reach potential employees for the position you are hiring. It will likely
vary based on the position. Develop the ‘advertisement’ to attract them and be
creative. The rules of good advertising apply – great heading, good content and
a call to action. Include the aspects of your company that make it a great
place for the type of person you wish to attract, as well as the “spirit” of
the person you desire. Additionally, always be on the lookout for good people who
can bring value to your organization. Make recruiting something that is ongoing,
not crisis driven! Remember “Good to
Great”.

Make hiring a De-Selection Process

Your time is valuable! Don’t
waste it interviewing potential employees who don’t possess the character
qualities you need or don’t fit into your culture. You can improve your results
and save time by incorporating a de-selection process, using a phone screen and
group pre-interview assessment to test for integrity, work ethic, and passion.If you design the group pre-interview
assessment properly, those that have the “fire in the oven” will stand out and
those who don’t will leave (de-select themselves), saving you time and hiring
mistakes.

Your written Vision,
Mission, and Culture statements are a valuable tool at this point to assist in
the de-selection process. During the group pre-interview meeting use these
tools with the position’s KPIs to communicate the high standards of behavior
and performance expected by all within your company. If you effectively
communicate these criteria, those that you would not want on your team will depart,
leaving you with the “cream of the crop”.

What are you looking for
at this stage? – Passion, confidence, and the desire to grow. These attributes are
much more important than knowledge or experience, which can be taught. Stay
disciplined and only interview candidates who make it through both the phone
and group interview steps.

Once you decide to
schedule someone for an interview, email them the job description so expectations
are clear before they arrive. Have the candidate meet with multiple people,
when possible, and employ behavioral interview techniques and tests to probe
for the skills and competencies that are most critical. Be willing to turn down
candidates who are not the right fit and don’t settle for less than the best!

Believe You Can and You Will

Sounds simple, but too
often we defeat ourselves before we start. Telling yourself ‘I just can’t get
good help’ becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Instead, start telling yourself
“I have a great team committed to achieving our goals”. Even if it’s not yet
true – YOU can make it so. Remember the objective when hiring is to be able to
say 3 years later that, “Knowing what I know now, I’d hire this person again in
a heartbeat!”

12/17/2008

Fear and other considerations dissuade those who wish a business
of their own. The few who step to the challenge follow the allure of
freedom; the ability to set their own hours and income level. Mix this
commanding vision with enough current dissatisfaction and it only takes a
little bit of support and courage to become a business owner, right? Not
really. Just because you went on your own does not mean that you now have a
business. Perhaps you simply own a job and that is not much different
from being employed; only now you carry all the responsibilities
associated with that job. To call it a business, your enterprise-
must- besides being profitable- run without your continuous intervention.
That is true freedom and the factor that will allow you to grow and have a
lifestyle. Unless you can make your business run without you, you will
remain self-employed, underpaid and eventually will experience burnout;
it’s the employed-self-employed- back to a job cycle.

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Self-employed people quickly learn that there are other things
that need to be handled besides the technical aspect. But they don’t do much
about it. Time is a big issue. So if you are in the plumbing business, besides
plumbing you need to market and sell your services, deal with suppliers, do
payroll, pay taxes, manage your accounting, survive competition,
among many other activities. It is the same for all businesses.

When I graduated from law in 1986, I was clueless as to the
business side of the profession. I noticed other lawyers who I thought
were less capable, building a great legal practice. While I was honing my legal
skills, others were developing competencies in marketing and sales. As a
result, they were getting new clients. As I immersed myself in legal
work, others were taking time to manage their business, doing networking, creating
alliances and recruiting other lawyers for their growing business. While
I kept myself busy as a lawyer (and eventually ended looking for a job) others
were building a legal business for longevity. I later learned that like
in the plumbing business, being an excellent lawyer had nothing to do with the
business of law.

If you are self-employed and want to grow, you should take your
nose out of the technical side of the business. Even if you are the only employee,
start paying close attention to the business aspect of whatever it is that you
do. We live in a capitalist society and to survive our business must be
profitable.

Businesses that enjoy a steady stream of revenue have answered
key questions like: Where are we leading the business? How do we intend to get
there? What resources are needed? Who are our ideal clients and how can we best
service them to increase retention?

As a business owner there is so much you can do in a day.
You cannot create more time. So the more you spend on the production side, the
less time you have to plan and administer. You react to events rather than plan
and execute proactively. Instead of controlling your business it controls
you. Meanwhile who is running the business?

You might argue that if you don’t do the job, it will not get
done. It may be true for now, so what needs to happen for you to start hiring
others to do the job (partially or totally) for you? What successful company do
you know that the CEO is the one doing the technical part?

I am not suggesting for you to forget the technical side. Rather it’s about creating processes that
will allow you to train, delegate duties and monitor performance. How do you
think the big fast-food chains deal with a 200-300% annual employee
turnover? Perhaps you think you cannot
afford hiring help. Well, that is one challenge you need to crack
open. Yet, you will not solve it if you keep focusing on the operational
side.

Break-away from the enslaving self-employed predicament by
shifting your focus from an operations point of view to a managerial/
entrepreneurial frame of mind. Clever ideas to build your business will
begin to flow. Soon, you will find ways to grow as you hire others and lead a
powerful team.

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12/12/2008

Cash
is to a business what gasoline is for a car.When there is none left, both cease to operate. Unlike the car however,
you cannot just pump cash and get going again. A business on an empty tank
collapses like a house of cards. It crumbles on itself unable to carry the
burdens of its debts.Once it falls it’s
very difficult to rebuild it. Now that cash is becoming scarce everywhere, it’s
essential for you to understand your business’ numbers and monitor
the “vital signs” that will enable you to make timely decisions.

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You
may have a profitable business and still go bankrupt. It happens continually.
Profit is the result of an equation- what’s left over after subtracting
expenses from your sales. In real life, you can continue to operate a business
only if you have money to spend.This
means having sufficient reserves to meet your financial obligations
such as payroll and accounts payable.How many times have you’ve seen profitable
ventures going out of business? When payment was due, the business had no money
in the bank. Suppliers ceased to supply and there was nothing to sell to
generate more revenues.

Cash
flow has a lot to do with timing; having the money when you need it. That is
what the Statement of Cash Flows is all about.Unless you learn to read financial reports, it will be difficult for you
to follow the money in your business. A cash flow statement is like a checking
account ledger on steroids. It demonstrates and explains the net increase or
decrease in cash and the balance at the end of a period.Most accounting software includes such a
report plus there are plenty of spreadsheets in the internet that you can
download forfree.

Another
critical report is the Income Statement, also known as a
profit and loss statement.It registers
the profit or loss of a business based on its sales and expenses at any one
given period of time.This report also
helps you create a budget for the future.By examining your past operations you can prepare a list of your projected revenues
and expenses. This is relatively simple.You begin identifying a typical monthly revenue stream (how much you are
selling and where is it coming from). Then you go individually over each of the
twelve months; to consider account variations based on seasonal or particular expectations.
You repeat the process for expenses.By
subtracting expenses from the revenues your budget will have aprofit or loss.

Of
course all the software and tools will be useless if you don’t use them. Sure
it’s more entertaining to focus on other aspects of your business but it’s a
tradeoff and it’s your choice. Do you want to be proactive and anticipate
potential issues or experience the shock of a crippled business unable to meet
its financial obligations.

Keeping your books is not
just for tax purposes. Cease relying on accountants and financial advisors to
tell you what you need to know (especially if it’s about events that already
happened and cannot do much about it).Instead get them to teach you how to read your balance sheet, profit
& loss statement and statement of cash flows; or read and learn; there are
plenty of books out there.

Think
of how hospitals take care of patients in their intensive care units.Nurses place sensors all over the patient and
monitor the signs so they can anticipate and make timely interventions.It’s the same principle in business.

I
am not suggesting you to become an accountant or skilled in mathematics. A
nurse is not a doctor and it’s still the person who looks out for the patient.
I do recommend that you become aware of the importance of keeping score of your
numbers; that you understand them and take early action.

By
spending time learning how to read a few financial statements you will acquire
critical skills to strengthen your business.You will be ready to interpret data necessary to make timely decisions
and take early action.Is
your business ready to produce adequate cash to see you through the rough times
ahead?

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